Set your phone to require a password to power on or awaken from sleep mode.

Strong passwords are your first defense against identity thieves and other fraudsters, according to the Identity Theft Assistance Center, a victim advocacy organization, and BITS, the technology policy division of The Financial Services Roundtable, which represents large financial services companies.

The two organizations have teamed up to offer the following password tips.

Use combinations of lower- and upper-case characters, numbers and symbols to make up phrases you can easily remember. For example, combine the first two letters of your car's make, the first two letters of your first school and the first few digits of a number you know well to make up a password.

Use the maximum number of allowable characters.

Use passwords that remind you of an event instead of name or date.

Don't use the same password for all your online sites.

Use a capital letter in the middle of the password or substitute a number for a letter.

Avoid easily guessed passwords, such as names of family members or pet names, public information such as your birthday or address, and sequential passwords such as "abcdefghi" or "1234abcd."

Do you have a strong password that follows these guidelines? Share your password tips.

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